Would White Bear Lake use Mississippi River? No easy sell to the suburbs

Graupmann, the production division manager with the St. Paul Regional Water Services, said that odor was often a complaint from east metro cities not hooked up to the agency's Mississippi River-fed system.

A new filter setup took care of the smell, caused by seasonal algae blooms in the lakes used for water.

But with the Metropolitan Council and U.S. Geological Survey warning that continued municipal reliance on the Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer is unsustainable, stink could be the least of worries.

In the 1950s, about 90 percent of the water the Twin Cities used came from above-ground sources such as rivers and lakes. The growth of the region since has seen that percentage drop to about a quarter. The bulk of metro water used now is pulled from aquifers below ground.

But wells are having to be dropped, and scientists now point to shrinking lakes around the east metro -- such as White Bear -- as examples of lowering aquifer levels. A drought isn't helping. If the region's growth continues, changes will have to be made, they warn.

St. Paul's water service, which provides, in whole or part, to Roseville, Maplewood and nine other cities, is seen as one potential solution. But leaders in some of those suburbs using well water would be hard pressed to change without hard evidence that it is needed.

"The city wants to be sure the science is right before it mothballs a multimillion-dollar water treatment facility," said White Bear Lake City Manager Mark Sather.

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Meanwhile, state and federal agencies struggle to collect more data on the under-researched underground resource. One proposal calls for $9.5 million to drill hundreds more monitoring wells across Minnesota. Some researchers say thousands are needed.

TOUGH SELL

The scenario of supplying the entire metro with surface water isn't feasible now because the regional water service doesn't have the capacity, Graupmann said.

But St. Paul does have the capacity to supply Hugo, White Bear Township and White Bear Lake.

Our water

Water was once taken for granted as a resource in Minnesota. Not anymore.

For a land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota's most important water lies beneath. And many believe unchecked usage fueled by growth has compromised its supply to millions of users.

Solutions to the water woes won't be easy or cheap. Shutting off the pumps and relying on the Mississippi River is one option. Another? Be more like Santa Fe.

Minnesota, particularly the central part of the state, has been experiencing an irrigation boom. This is one farmer's story.

"The big thing would be to run pipe out to their system," he said. The cost of that endeavor is unknown.

But that begs the question: Would well cities even take St. Paul's water?

Not anytime soon in White Bear Lake.

White Bear, like many suburban communities, created a localized water service based on wells when they were established.

The water they tapped into has been a high-quality, good supply for the city. And it's cheaper.

"Our average person in White Bear Lake would be charged $27.21 per quarter," Sather said. "The same person, on the St. Paul Regional Water Service, would be charged $73.12."

SAVE, SAVE, SAVE

Several suburban communities, including Woodbury and White Bear Lake, have pushed conservation efforts in recent years.

White Bear's includes tiered water rates and lawn-sprinkling restrictions. Those measures, along with citywide reminders about how precious a resource water is, have led to a 25 percent drop in water consumption in the city in the past five years, Sather said.

"But there's more to consumer behavior than responding to prices and regulations," Sather said.

He points to the major drought of the late 1980s, when the lake dropped by several feet. Communities around the metro were instituting lawn-sprinkling bans at the time.

White Bear Lake didn't.

"Our wells were fine," Sather said.

But the city was conspicuous in its consumption, particularly with no watering ban. So the mayor reminded the public to be conscientious of its water use, Sather said.

Use dropped 20 percent.

"If you give them good information, I think they'll respond in a way that's good for the majority," he said.

AQUIFER WATCH

The lake is dropping again. And experts are sounding the alarm after a recently completed study of surface and groundwater interaction in and around White Bear Lake linked the drop with municipal water use.

Sather said that if the study's conclusion is borne out through more study, the city would more likely go along with a switch to surface water.

But he, Graupmann and several other sources for this story agreed: Additional data is needed to figure out what's happening to the aquifer and White Bear Lake.

"The first thing we're trying to do is get as much factual information as possible, before we go off in the wrong direction," Sather said.

And that information is in short supply.

Historically, we haven't paid much attention to groundwater in Minnesota, said Mike MacDonald in the water levels data management section of the state Department of Natural Resources.

That means that across most of Minnesota -- about 75 percent -- there's no solid data on groundwater flow and, thus, supply.

Until that data is collected -- and there are no current plans to invest the several years and untold cost to figure that out -- Sen. Chuck Wiger, DFL-Maplewood, has proposed a bill that would require a "conservation rate structure," much like White Bear's, for communities in those regions.

Aquifer watchers have to rely on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource's series of about 800 observation wells across the state, which measure the distance from the top of the well to the water below.

To establish good baseline data, about 7,000 observation wells are needed, MacDonald said. In the 11-county metro area of the Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer, the DNR has 56.

What they show isn't encouraging.

"There are some wells in the metro area that have shown a downward trend in the (Prairie du Chien-Jordan) aquifer," said MacDonald. "Is it a problem? Not yet. But it's something that we need to start asking -- 'Why is it doing that, and what can we do to prevent it?' "

But using a series of wells to measure the health of a water source that stretches under several states is far from perfect.

"You can see when a stream goes dry, but we've only got a six-inch well to see what's happening in the aquifer," he said.

While the U.S.Geological Survey study on the interaction between White Bear Lake and the underlying aquifer raised some good questions, he said, a lot more study is needed.

"And it's going to take more than the DNR doing it, too," he said.

Two bills in the Minnesota Legislature seek to add to the store of data.

One proposal would allocate $500,000 to $1.5 million to complete a study of the White Bear Lake situation and potentially identify solutions.

The other is the $9.5 million request for bonding money to drill more monitoring wells around the state.

In the meantime, MacDonald and others said conservation is the quickest and easiest possible action, despite the outcome of further surface- and groundwater interaction studies.

"If it's not true (that pumping is reducing the Prairie du Chien-Jordan) and we still reduce the amount of water we took out of the aquifer -- and nobody's harmed -- is that a bad thing?"